Nuns' Sacred Circle Draws Attention

A Mandala Takes Shape At Trinity

March 06, 1998|By GARRET CONDON; Courant Staff Writer

Tibetan nuns are making a sacred circle of sand -- a mandala -- at Trinity College. In the process, they're attracting a growing circle of friends and admirers. Those who imagine Buddhist nuns to be aloof would marvel at the tears and hugs in the Austin Arts Center, where the Buddhist mandala is taking shape.

Ani Tendol La, 24, the diminutive nun who translates for the group of seven nuns, got choked up on a recent morning when she heard visiting youngsters from Hartford's Parkville Community School -- who have been studying mandalas -- speak knowledgeably about Tibet.

``I felt my eyes full of tears,'' she says. ``It made me very happy. Such young children know Tibet.''

Thanks to the globe-trotting Dalai Lama and Hollywood's current fascination with the lost horizon of Tibet, many Americans know about the Himalayan nation that was annexed by China in 1949. The Dalai Lama fled Chinese-controlled Tibet to India in 1959. The large Tibetan exile communities in India and Nepal have struggled to keep Tibetan cultural and religious traditions alive.

The ever-widening mandala at Trinity is one of the fruits of their struggle. In addition, it represents a breakthrough for Tibetan nuns in a monk-dominated religion.

In 1993, the Dalai Lama approved a plan to teach nuns the sacred arts of mandala-making and the creation of sacred paintings (tangkas). The nuns at Trinity, all from the Keydong Thuk-Che-Cho-Ling Nunnery in Katmandu, Nepal, were among the first to be trained, and they are the first to create a mandala in the United States. (One of the nuns is also painting a tangka.)

This is not lost on those who have been watching the process, which opened to the public Feb. 23.

``I especially like that they're women, because the last time they did the mandala, it was men,'' said Madeline Cronin, 11, of West Hartford. (Ven. Lobsang Samten, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher and mandala master, created a mandala at Trinity in 1994.)

What the nuns have learned from monk masters is no mere decorative art but a complex Buddhist teaching. The mandala is a kind of sacred architectural drawing of the palace of Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva, or deity, of compassion. (Tibetan Buddhists believe the Dalai Lama to be a reincarnation of Avalokitesvara.) The mandala also represents a diagram of the universe, a plan of the human body and a meditative blueprint for enlightenment.

From the colorful central lotus blossom, to the palace walls, it is filled with vivid hues and incredible detail, and it is rich with meaning. Ani Tendol La speaks of the pure lotus flower that grows out of the mud as a metaphor for the virtue and compassion that can take root amid the anguish of human life. The small, ornate umbrellas are meant to protect from suffering; the tiny fish represent fearlessness.

The medium is a message, too. The mandala is expected to be finished Thursday. On March 15, it will be swept up and its sand will be tossed into the Connecticut River.

Life's impermanence is a key Buddhist tenet. ``One time, everyone will be dead,'' Ani Tendol La reminded some viewers. ``Everyone.''

Despite the esoteric nature of the work, many are drawn to the mandala-making each weekday. Observers watch over the shoulders of the maroon-clad nuns, who sit on the 6- foot-square platform and bend over the carefully drawn design. The nuns add minute details by tapping and scraping shiny, metal funnels, which they fill with colored sand. Some gallery visitors ask questions of Ani Tendol La or sit alongside tangka painter Tenzin Sherab. Others come to join the nuns when they begin their day in the gallery with chanting and meditation.

The 40-minute ceremony seemed oddly familiar to Matthew Cowles of Bethlehem, Conn., on a recent morning. He described himself as a devout Catholic. ``I found all that chanting to be just like my childhood,'' he said, referring to the Gregorian chant sung by Catholic nuns at the Regina Laudis Abbey in Bethlehem.

The Buddhist nuns, aged 18 to 25, are also observers, though their tight schedule hasn't allowed them to mix much with Trinity undergrads.

``It's just a buzz of furious activity,'' said Melissa Kerin of the nuns' campus life. Kerin, a 1994 Trinity graduate now at Harvard Divinity School, lives with the nuns in their college digs on Vernon Street. Kerin's undergraduate work in Tibetan sacred art -- and study abroad in Tibet, India, and Nepal -- brought her in contact with the nuns and laid the groundwork for their Hartford visit.

Tenzin Sherab, the tangka-making nun, said she's already a fan of bagels and pizza -- both big hits with all the nuns. She has been surprised by Americans' curiosity about Tibetan art and the deep spirituality that she's discovered here.